Italy October 2011

We were in Tuscany in mid-October. You will need an all-weather/lightweight rain jacket, and layers, but some days will be warm (mid-60s) while most nights will be in the low 50s, and could dip to the upper 40s. We encountered very little actual rain, but some mist, some wind, and those cool evenings/early mornings. If by "south" you mean Rome, it was very pleasant for us, and had no rain Oct 19-24. Needed a light jacket early AM and evenings, but ate "al fresco" every chance we had. I wore jeans (nice, tailored, black jeans) throughout Italy and was very comfortable with a long-sleeved light sweater or blouse, and used a nice vest as extra layering under my lightweight all-weather rain jacket. Some of the younger women were in tank tops, but it was never relaly that warm to my mind.

Thanks Laurel. Your info is very helpful. Were there still long lines and crowds for the major sights? Our itinerary is very open at this point. Time in Tuscany to visit relatives then we'll be on our own for two weeks. Any special finds that we shouldn't miss?

Sites were not crowded in the parts of Tuscany we visited. Siena was busy, but it seemed more with the business of being Siena than with tourists. The duomo was easy-access, for example. We also took a nice day tour with Tours By Roberto, which was a real highlight. We drove among many small towns: Montalcino, Volterra, Monteriggioni, Pienza (lovely!), Montepulciano, San Quircio D'Orcia, and more. No problem accessing anything we wanted to see, but we did not do a lot of museums. FYI, Montalcino has a very nice little museum and we were the ONLY visitors for an hour one day. Rome was busy but my impression was that the masses of summer tourists were down quite a bit. But so many people were clueless about the "skip the line" trick at the Colosseum, I couldn't beleive it! We bought a Roma Pass, had a pre-arranged private guide for Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill (Francesca Caruso) and sailed past the line. I believe a tour is also useful at the Vatican. Try to arrange before you go and once again, skip the line. One place we did encounter a huge line was trying to return to St. Peter's after lunch. We toured in the AM, went to lunch, then came back to see more. The line for security at St. Peter's was over 1/2 and hour. I know that's short compared to summer, but we did not expect that.

Additonal comments: As to special finds, I loved just walking especially where the throngs were not walking. In Rome, the Aventine Hill was very nice, and we took Rick Steves' Pilgrim's walk, adding on San Pietro in Vincoli. Also did the Trevi Fountain at 0730 one morning and were two of only five tourists there. Same night there were HUNDREDS. Get out early is my mantra! Check out the book from Frommer's "24 Great Walks in Rome." I used that to guide our Roman discoveries. The Slow Travel website has nice drives in Tuscany. The Abbey at Sant'Antimo is fabulous. We hiked there from Montalcino. We also really liked Orvieto. Stayed two nights, and that was enough without doing more daytrips from there, but a very nice relaxing little city. So quiet at night! You can walk around the base of Orvieto on "The Rupe," a scenic walk, and useful in burning off the morning's pastry.

Here's a weather website, input your location and dates and it will tell you what the last 10 or 15 years of actual weather has been for your dates: http://www.wunderground.com/tripplanner/index.asp

I was in northern Italy during the first half of October 2008, wore sandals every day, never a jacket, and was glad of the A/C in Florence and Milan, needed a fan in my room in Venice (no A/C). On the other hand, last September there was massive flooding in Sicily because of the heavy rains. This year, I wore sandals for about half the time the week I was in Rome in February. My advice, expect warm, be prepared for anything.

Judy, October in Italy is very similar to our weather here in So Cal.--warm (mid-60's) during the day and very cool in the evening. It is a lovely time of year to go to Italy. We also just returned. We were in Milan on Sept. 30 and made our way south to Pompeii and then back up through Venice several weeks later. During the day, I wore my LuLu Lemon nylon capri pants (love them) and at night would put on a jacket. Of course, Pompeii was in the mid-70's, while Tuscany and Chianti was in the mid-60's. We experienced no humidity and light rain here and there. PM me if you are ever coming down here to the OC and want to share ideas/experiences. I'm going through European trip withdrawals right now.

We had pretty warm (but not hot) days and cool (definitely not cold) nights. We had some very light rain but just missed heavier rain in CT. Rain seems to be the biggest potential hazard to prepare for.

When your trip gets pretty close, you can also go to weather.com and type in the cities where you'll be. This helps with packing and last-minute assumptions about the weather. I did this for my trip to northern Europe in July this year and was glad I did - the site predicted temperatures in the 90s, which turned out to be correct (and prepared me mentally, too!).